The present invention relates to a tire position determination system that determines the position of a tire with a detection signal from a tire pressure detector.
A vehicle may include a tire pressure monitoring system. In a tire pressure monitoring system, a tire pressure detector that is attached to a tire directly detects the pressure of the tire and transmits, through wireless communication, a detection signal to a receiver that is arranged on a vehicle body. Preferably, the tire pressure monitoring system notifies the driver of where a tire having low pressure is located relative to the vehicle. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication Nos. 2006-062516 and 2012-126341 each describe an example of a tire pressure monitoring system implementing a function for automatically determining the position of each tire (automatic tire location function) when the tire positions are changed, such as when rotating the tires, or when exchanging a tire with a new one. The tire pressure monitoring system includes an initiator attached to each wheel well. The initiator transmits a radio wave signal, through wireless communication, to the corresponding tire pressure detector so that a radio wave signal is returned in response. Based on the radio wave signal from each tire pressure detector, the tire pressure monitoring system determines the position of each tire.